You knew this song was coming. The way I shuffle over the lines that separate Christianity from the pagan religions, proclaiming Christ while making friends with Odin  . . . I am well aware of my . . . shortcomings, in that area, and it would be dishonest to pretend that I function in any other manner. I blame my time in New Orleans.

During that time when I was so spiritually experimental, I became quite fond of the Three Kings. Aka The Three Wise Men. Aka, The Three Magi. Let me try to explain why. . .

A lot of times, in our Nativity stories, the Three Dudes of Wealth and Esoteric Training enter in as a bit of Glam! onto the scene, glitzy and shining, giving nice gifts to the new Child, then waltzing back off stage. They’re important, their gifts symbolic . . buy why? Why are they important? What meaning do they bring to the story that is not brought by the choirs of angels and flocks of shepherds?

The Magi were pagan kings from far away– some speculate, from as far away as modern day China, or as relatively close as Persia. It is certain that at least one, and likely all three, were accomplished astrologers, likely alchemists as well. One thing they are most certainly not, however, are Jews. They might be Zoroastrian, maybe Confucian (maybe even some of the earliest Buddhists), who knows? But definitely not Jews. And that’s where their importance comes in. Their gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh proclaim their knowledge and understanding of exactly who and what little Jesus is: King, God and Man. They are the first humans to know, understand, and hail the Child as the Son of God, the Savior of the World.

They know, and they aren’t even of The People. What scandal, that Three Rich Goyim are the first to recognize the Messiah! And how did they know? Through questionable practices like Astrology!

The importance of the Three Magi is that they are the first sign that the Kingdom will not be just for the Hebrews, but for all the people of the world. They are arguably some of the first Christians (after, we might assume, Mary and Joseph). They see a sign in the sky, they follow the Star, they meet the local head politico Herod (where they get directions to Bethlehem), they meet Mary, Joseph and Jesus, they give the three gifts, and then gracefully bow out, avoiding meeting Herod again because they were warned in a dream that Herod had some bad ideas in progress. We see no more of them, though speculation is rife. Some accounts say that in the years between Jesus’ Bar Mitzvah and his 30th year, He searched out and studied some under the Three who had come to His birth. There is no reason to believe that these accounts are true in anyway. But there’s not a lot of reason to believe that they aren’t true either. It’s unknown.

But the point that has always come around for me is that these Three Men found Jesus Christ through a practice that would later be condemned as the work of the Devil. While as Christians we believe that the only way to the Father is through the Son, there are many ways to the Son. It’s why I generally have a hard time with saying that there is one way, and only one way, to Jesus. Because if that were so, how the heck did the Three Goyim Magi ever get to Bethlehem?